When selecting where to stay on your family vacation, chain hotels and motels are hardly ever the most economical or convenient lodging choice for a big family. Using a little digging and research, almost every destination offers better alternatives.

Rent a residence:

There’s no need to cram into a single room if you can rent a complete house. In tourist towns it’s often no problem finding fully-furnished rentals. You have multiple bedrooms under one roof, along with a kitchen for cooking breakfast or light meals. It’s a lot cheaper than several standard hotel rooms and eating in resort restaurants. Search Google for vacation rentals, or vacation rentals by owner for any destination you’re attracted to. Craig’s List also has ads for vacation rentals by area.

Home Exchange:

When thinking of where to stay on your family vacation, if you’ve never considered a Home Exchange Vacation, the prospect may be a little daunting. After all you’re letting a family you don’t know live in your home while you live in theirs. However, if you think about the benefits, you may very well be tempted to try it at least once.

Remember that your potential exchange partner is likely to have the same concerns as you do. Having someone in your home at the same time you are in theirs gives each of you a powerful incentive to treat the home entrusted to you personally with respect and care.

Many of the great things about a home exchange family vacation include:

1. Obviously the price of remaining in someone’s home will likely to be lower than staying in hotel accommodations and they are also a whole lot more casual and relaxing.

2. An exchange is arranged between families with children of similar ages. Therefore you won’t be required to travel with a lot of baggage, (especially if your children are infants and toddlers)

3. Oftentimes you are also able to exchange cars which will save on rental-car fees (check with the insurance companies first)

4. In the event that your children are older, once the exchange is finalized, you might find them emailing and IM’ing one another. By the time family vacation rolls around, they will often have already made friends with the other neighborhood kids on Facebook or other social networking sites.

5. Home exchanges are interesting because you can slip right into the local lifestyle and see glimpses of how people live, the best quality local places to eat, get invited to local events that you simply would never get to see or do as a tourist.

6. Should you be someone who worries about leaving an empty home, having someone stay there as long as you’re away will relieve your concerns.

7. If there are pets involved, arrangements may be made for pet care and this also can eliminate expensive kennel costs.

You can find more info about home exchanges at Home Exchange.com

Rent a Time Share:

You don’t need to own a timeshare to enjoy the benefits of time share ownership. Many timeshare owners rent out their weeks for a small price of what it would set you back to stay at a hotel.

I myself own a timeshare that sleeps six and I often rent it out for only $500. a week in order to cover my maintenance fees if I don’t plan to use it that year. A number of other time share owners do the same.

Visit Craig’s List for available timeshares in the area you intend to see. For other time shares that may be available for you to stay on family vacations take a look at Redweek.com

National and State Parks:

In the event that your chosen family vacation destination choice is anywhere near a state or national park, this can be a great choice for your home base when thinking of where to stay for your family vacation.

When I talk about staying at a national or state park, I’m not referring to tying your tents and camping equipment to the top of your SUV and heading out for the back country. After all, we’re discussing a vacation here. National and state parks around the U.S. are providing accommodations for family travelers which are beyond the typical park campsites. These parks now offer vacation cottage and cabin rentals that are fully-equipped for travelers who are searching for a week or a weekend get away vacation.

Before making a decision to seek out your lodging in a national or state park, do your research. A lot of these cabins offer just the bare essentials and amenities. There are several levels of cabins available from standard to deluxe. Review the different options and choose one that is suitable for your expectations for accommodations.

When staying at a state park cabin or cottage, you’re getting a number of the same amenities you’d have when residing at a beach house. Usually there are often one or two bedroom choices, a full kitchen, living room and dining area. Make it a point and check just what exactly is readily available for bedding since there is a great variation of bedding offered, from bare mattresses and pillows to full bedding.

One Final Caveat:

Remember that when traveling with a big family things will in all likelihood go wrong and the unexpected usually happens. An open mind, a flexible outlook, and a great sense of humor might help keep you-and your family-happy and sane. To reduce frustration for everyone, plan a trip that’s light on itinerary and planned excursions and brimming with relaxation and laid-back discovery.

Never underestimate the time you spend with all your children. Chances are you’ll feel exhausted and frustrated some days when you find yourself traveling and wonder what in the world possessed you to embark on this journey. However, in years to come, you will be amazed at just how much your children remember of those trips plus the stories and memories they have stored about them.

As a mother of six children and having 9 grandchildren and 1 great grandchild, Gloria Daniels has done my her share of traveling with children. Now that she is retired, she is combining her love of sharing and teaching with her love of travel to help other families find the joy of traveling with their children and sharing experiences with them.

Visit her website at Best Family Travel Tips for more in depth info on family traveling with children.

I have had the unfortunate luck of running into things that bite you in the night. This is at some of the Asia hotels and guesthouses that I have stayed at in Asia and I do not just mean mosquitoes.

One hotel had scabies that fortunately wasn’t in my room but a couple of other people got a dose. If the hotel or guesthouse does not have a dryer it will be difficult for them to get rid of unless they soak the bedding in very hot, roiling boil water for a few minutes.

The way to get rid of them off of you personally is that you need to get a ointment usually, that kills them and make sure that you have all of your laundry done and dried completely on the hottest setting, which kills any that might be on your cloths or sleeping garments.

I have been bitten by bed bugs in a few of the cheapest guesthouses. Bed bugs are very hard to get rid of, basically you need to freeze the bed, which is hard to do in the tropics, or stick the entire bed in a plastic bag and apply some bed bug killing solutions, or isolate the mattress for 6 months in a plastic bag.

You also need to clean very good the rest of the bed frame and anything close to the bed as the bed bugs can jump back on to a new or cleaned mattress and you are infected again. A good idea is not to stick you luggage on the bed whenever possible to avoid hitchhikers.

Cockroaches you can sometimes have crawl into your luggage when you are traveling and you can bring them home with you. If that is the case take your luggage and shake it real good and look for the little bastards in all the little nicks and crannies, and if you find them, of course, squish the little darlings and give the luggage a good spray with a bug spray.

If you do get a infestation of cockroaches in your home or apartment you need to bomb the dwelling and apply some cockroach powder near all the water fixtures that you can not see like behind the toilet and under the sinks and around the refrigerator. One drop of sweat off a pipe is enough water for a small army of roaches.

On the bombing you need to do it 3 times do it the first time and wait 12 days bomb again, wait 12 days and then the final. If you have the powder out and follow that schedule you will be successful in getting rid of them, again the keys are 3 times two weeks apart, which breaks the egg cycle and powder around the water pipes which will get any stragglers. Cardboard is on their favorite food list.

Also if you are in a building that has many tenants they might infiltrate from the other apartments, fill all the cracks that you can find. Many times water and drain pipes will share common walls, these are areas to pay particular attention to as no water, no roaches.

Lice are generally caught by close contact with someone who is infected but a pillow case that has them could probably transfer them as well. They are not real hard to get rid of basically if they wash the bedding after each customer you should be fine. If you do get them a cheap remedy is to buy dog flea shampoo which works just fine.

So some general rules are to look and see if they have changed the bedding and to look at the bedding to see if there are any small blood stains which is a very bad sign. Open doors and drawers, and look in the bathroom if you see stuff moving not a good sign. If there are towels or curtains, the little creepy crawlies like to hide there and are good indicators. When ever possible, ask for recommendations from people that have stayed there recently as they will know and so then will you, without the unpleasant experience.

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Hostels and budget accommodation are a great travel option. They can prove to be a blessing providing good clean surroundings for less money with a pleasant social setting and all facilities available. To make it a good experience, certain tips can be followed to enhance and enrich the experience.

Hostels and budget accommodations have different variety of rooms like single rooms, double room, dorm rooms, 4 sleepers, 6 sleepers or 8 sleepers. However single rooms are preferred by most of the travelers so they are quickly booked and are generally not available.  So, if you are keen to stay in single rooms it is better to make advance reservation and tell the concerned authorities about number of days you plan to stay.

Many hostels have certain time-limit or curfew, so it is important to know the time limit [if your hostel has] and be on time to get shelter comfortably.

Breakfast is one of the facilities which are being provided in such accommodations but it is for limited time. So, you have to take your breakfast within the allotted time and enjoy your day.

Generally hostels have different facilities like laundry, washing machine, community kitchen, internet cafes and TV. It is best to check with hostel authorities all necessary facilities which are being available and also extra facilities, which they can provide you.

Going to  the Soccer World Cup 2010 ? To enjoy it to its fullest, you have to find an accommodation near one of the best stadiums or within any of the host cities. You will get plenty of resources out there for you accommodation needs.

Coming to Johannesburg for the FIFA Cup Accommodation then let us accommodate you. Providing best Accommodation hostels that are located in superb areas which are a stone throw away from the city’s hottest clubs, restaurants and pubs.

Guest Article By Neha Saxena